Food for thought

I was watching a program the other day in which a "life coach" was being interviewed. She said a couple of things which have been going over and over in my head.
One was an example of working with a company on "conflict resolution". She told the employees to assume that everyone in the work place cared as much about their work as everyone else. This would help to ease the "why do they do it that way? " thoughts that inevitably occur when there are different personalities involved on a team.

I thought of my own work places and how many different types of people who are my colleagues. There are many types of personalities and it is easy to assume that the other person is deliberately sabotaging the work place. But if you 'turn the dial the other way' you assume the best - and I wonder if you might see the best of people as well. You must be the change you want to see in the world. (Ghandi)

The other was the example of the CEO who was having trouble with accomplishing his goals. She asked him to break it down to "one thing". What was the one thing that he wanted to do. I believe the answer was something like "get the bills paid". So she asked him what was "one thing" that would help accomplish this goal? His answer was to get a great notebook and keep track of the bills that way. The simplicity of this idea appealed to me. This could be because she mentioned getting a great notebook (I'm all for great paper ideas!). But mainly it was the fact that instead of allowing yourself to become overwhelmed, the tasks are broken down into manageable chunks. Do just "one thing" has been resonating in my head over and over again this weekend.

I even wrote myself an email to remind myself at work "JUST ONE THING". It helped change the tone of the day for me. And maybe it's a little silly, but I feel more energized at the end of this day than I have in a while.

I wonder if my family would mind if I served them just "one thing" for supper?